{"id":6292,"date":"2012-07-10T05:45:50","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T09:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=6292"},"modified":"2012-08-07T14:46:30","modified_gmt":"2012-08-07T18:46:30","slug":"conservative-kid-grow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/07\/conservative-kid-grow-up.html","title":{"rendered":"“Conservative Kid Grows Up”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Ed of Dispatches from the Culture Wars just posted an interesting piece<\/a> called \u201cConservative Kid Grows Up.\u201d I found it interesting because, quite simply, it\u2019s my story too. And for many of you, it\u2019s your story as well. Here are a couple excerpts from a news story<\/a> on it:<\/p>\n

Jonathan Krohn took the political world by storm at 2009\u2019s\u00a0Conservative Political Action Conference<\/a> when, at just 13 years old, he delivered an impromptu rallying cry for conservatism that became a viral hit and had some pegging him as a future star of the Republican Party.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Much like this young man, I and my fellow Christian homeschoolers were told that we were the future of the Republican Party, that we were the future of all that is good in this nation, and that we would grow up to be some sort of\u00a0conservative\u00a0super stars. And, like him, it didn\u2019t exactly work out like that for me:<\/p>\n

Now 17, Krohn \u2014 who went on to write a book, \u201cDefining Conservatism,\u201d that was blurbed by the likes of\u00a0Newt Gingrich<\/a> and Bill Bennett \u2014 still watches that speech from time to time, but it mostly makes him cringe because, well, he\u2019s not a conservative anymore.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Occasionally I run across things I wrote in my former life, and yes, I cringe too. And it\u2019s not just me. I\u2019ve talked to others who have walked similar path who have plenty of cringing moments. And of course, the worst is when a parent or relative tries to sway an argument by saying \u201cbut don\u2019t you remember when you said X?\u201d And yes. Yes, I remember. But that\u2019s the position or argument that I am now arguing against. <\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was naive,\u201d Krohn now says of the speech. \u201cIt\u2019s a 13-year-old kid saying stuff that he had heard for a long time.\u2026 I live in\u00a0Georgia<\/a>. We\u2019re inundated with conservative talk in Georgia.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Exactly! The irony is that my parents, etc., think that the ideas I articulated at 13 were somehow really mine, and that the ideas I articulate today I articulate only to please my peers, or because I\u2019ve been \u201cbrainwashed by liberal professors,\u201d etc. I <\/em>was naive to think I had everything figured out, but my parents and their peers should have known that people grow and mature and form their own views.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe speech was something that a 13-year-old does. You haven\u2019t formed all your opinions. You\u2019re really defeating yourself if you think you have all of your ideas in your head when you were 12 or 13. It\u2019s impossible. You haven\u2019t done enough.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, yes, yes. <\/em>I was silly to think at 13 that I had everything figured out. And it was silly for my parents and their peers to think that I and my peers had thoughtfully formed our opinions when we were merely parroting what we had heard from them our whole lives \u2013 and indeed, parroting the only political views we had ever heard<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the first things that changed was that I stopped being a social conservative,\u201d said Krohn. \u201cIt just didn\u2019t seem right to me anymore. From there, it branched into other issues, everything from health care to economic issues.\u2026 I think I\u2019ve changed a lot, and it\u2019s not because I\u2019ve become a liberal from being a conservative \u2014 it\u2019s just that I thought about it more. The issues are so complex, you can\u2019t just go with some ideological mantra for each substantive issue.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I started changing my views while in college, my father told me I\u2019d been \u201cbrainwashed.\u201d But, like this young man says, \u201cit\u2019s just that I thought about it more.\u201d And yet, the idea that I could simply have thought through these issues further and formed new opinion on my own is somehow anathema. And that, my friends, is maddening.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re 100% and completely positively sure you\u2019re right, and when you\u2019re so sure you\u2019re right you\u2019re unwilling to even consider any other views or arguments, you end up thinking that anyone who thinks differently from you must be \u201cbrainwashed\u201d and that any child raised on the Truth \u2122 will naturally and honestly parrot, adopt, and forward your beliefs. Except, it doesn\u2019t always work out that way. And when it doesn\u2019t, someone is bound to get caught and chewed up in the gears.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed of Dispatches from the Culture Wars just posted an interesting piece called \u201cConservative Kid Grows Up.\u201d I found it interesting because, quite simply, it\u2019s my story too. And for many of you, it\u2019s your story as well. Here are a couple excerpts from a news story on it: Jonathan Krohn took the political world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,11],"tags":[24,148,130],"class_list":["post-6292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeschool","category-politics","tag-children","tag-christian-right","tag-questions"],"yoast_head":"\n"Conservative Kid Grows Up"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ed of Dispatches from the Culture Wars just posted an interesting piece called "Conservative Kid Grows Up." 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